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It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine

It's Psychedelic Baby is an independent, music magazine. We are covering alternative, underground, non-commercial and non-mainstream artists in variety of shapes and genres. Exclusive interviews, reviews and articles. A place where musicians can express themselves. We serve an international readership.

What to hell to do with 20 minutes of vinyl and an
overactive imagination? Turn two of Britain’s cosmic spaced-out cowboys loose
and hope for the best. Which is just about what you can expect from these two
side-long tracks from two of the foremost purveyors of instrumental space rock
ruining brain cells today. The Liverpudlian Mugstar emphasize their second
syllable with a quiet, intergalactic opening to ‘Breathing Mirror’ that evokes
the timelessness and emptiness of space exploration (inner and outer) in the
finest Barrett-era Floydian tradition. There’s a lunatic on the drumkit who’s
pounding out a heart-ripping backbeat for throbbing basslines, exploratory
guitar voyages, and otherworldy sounds of confusion that mimic madness
infiltrating the well-structured mind. Always interesting, never boring, the
lads pull out all the stops on their journey to worlds and brain cells you
never knew existed. About eight minutes in, the atmosphere thins out, the
breathing mirror begins gasping for meaning in its surroundings, and ominous
star clusters twinkle mysteriously all around you. Something is out there…are
you willing to find out what…or why? Proceed at your (and your mind’s) own
risk…. Works best for late-night/early morning come downs.

Glaswegian
space rock may sound like an oxymoron, but only by short-sighted ox-y morons
who are afraid to accept anything out of their limited comfort zones. Now,
admittedly, that title is not gonna garner any airplay, but I suspect they
don’t give a feck. [I’m not sure, but perhaps it was a line from Scorsese’s The
Departed?] Recorded at (and perhaps experienced as outtakes from) the sessions
that yielded their latest (Easterfaust) earlier this year, it consists of their
trademark brainfrying vibe crossbred with an improvisational flair that always
seems to suck you in to their vortex of swirling atmospherics in true
Hawkwind/Ozric Tentacle grooviness. A bit of krautocking mellowness permeates
the proceedings, which ebb and flow through various mood swings on the way to
find out the secret of the universe or, how to get “castaluh” (and you) as
fucked up as possible before they run out of plastic.

Merrell Fankhauser And The Exiles, The Velvetones, and
Fapardokly "The Lost Desert Tapes" (Ocean Records, 2014)

Since the early sixties, Merrell Fankhauser has been
cranking out a steady stream of exceptional music, encompassing everything from
surf rock instrumentals to pop to folk rock to psychedelia to progressive rock
to space rock and just good old rock and roll. Last year, the internationally
revered singer, songwriter, guitarist, and 2011 Grammy Nominee received a call
from Mac MacArthur, the son of Glenn MacArthur, who ran the Glenn label, which
was home to a number of Southern California groups in the late fifties and
sixties. Mac informed Merrell he was combing through the archives and asked if
he wanted the master tapes he discovered amid the digging. Merrell had
forgotten all about these recordings, which never transpired onto vinyl, and
readily accepted Mac's offer. And that is how "The Lost Desert Tapes"
came to be.

The tracks by Merrell's bands, Merrell And The Exiles and
Fapardokly, were recorded between the years 1964 and 1966. A Chuck Berry styled
rouser, "Make It Back To Memphis," is punctured with girly squeals,
giving the song a live feel, where "13th Child" crackles to a
primitive garage rock pose, and "Love Only You," and "You've
Been Untrue," are sliced of pure pop applications indebted to the
harmonious guitar pop of Buddy Holly, the Beatles, and the Beau Brummels.
Fapardokly's "The Music Scene" is a different version than the one featured
on the band's classic self-titled album, as this cut includes a spoken word
introduction. An astute commentary on the biz, the song articulates how tough
it is for bands to get a break and even if success and stardom is attained,
there is a price to pay. Buoyed by a sparkling folk rock polish, "The
Music Scene" cribs visible cues from both the Byrds and Buffalo
Springfield.

A relatively unknown group, the Velvetones are also
presented on the set. Shaking with manic energy, there's the frat rock
fashioned "Fuzzy Wuzzy," while the rest of the band's material are
instrumentals combining surf rhythms with rather exotically raw edges. "On
The Beach," "Velvet Stroll," "Moon Shadows," and the
fast paced "Gerico" portray the band's youthful charm and exuberance
to lasting effects.

Not only is "The Desert Tapes" a nice memento for
Merrell Fankhauser's many fans, but it further checks in as a nifty document of
a certain time and place. A must have for those in thrall to largely
pre-British Invasion sounds, the historic collection sells for $18 and can be
ordered from Ocean Records, PO Box 1504, Arroyo Grande, CA 93421.

When I discovered, that "The Flying Eyes" quartet
would play in Berlin withing their new European tour "Baltimore Invasion", it was
natural to buy plane ticket and prepare myself to visit the capital city of Germany, with its Wall, unofficially free-of-charge-metro and
unexpectedly good coffee.

So on October 24th in Cassiopeia club (

Kreuzberg) I made an interview with members of Flying Eyes.

You used to play in USA, and now you are in based in Berlin.
What's the difference between American and European public?

So far we've got much better success in Europe and much more interest from people, better
crowds, shows etc. By far this European tour was full of well attended shows, plus we went to a few new places, like Slovakia
and Luxembourg - we haven't been
there before and therefore shows weren't so well visited. But all the shows we played in Germany and other German-speaking countries were pretty
well attended. There are lots of music fans in Germany.

Have you ever played in almost empty clubs?

Definitely. We played shows in front of just a few people
sometimes, it certainly happens. You know, you can get out from a small area in America and its's hard to establish
yourself outside of this little region.

Did you have any troubles with getting to Europe? I'm guessing incidents like missing a plane or loosing documents didn't happen?

Elias: There were many stories in our
history, the worst one, the absolutely epic one was connected with the tour we did in
Europe back in 2011, when we got sold fake
plane tickets, stuck in airport and had to buy new ones. Yes, in the end everything worked out, but at certain point there
was a pretty scary moment, when you were staying in the airport, stressed and
confused, didn't even know you
would be able to make this tour happen.

Yeah, they are really good friends from Baltimore, we played for the first time together. Discovered
each other in 2010, I think. We played a
show with them in a small strange underground venue, and we all had a lot of
drugs ... it was just like: "OMG, we
NEED to be together", and after that we had lots of shows in Baltimore together. Over the years we were looking for a good opportunity to bring them
here to Europe, and finally "Lazlo Lee and The Motherless
Children" are having their first
European tour. They are a great band and good friends. But even more important, they are awesome band that deserves to
be heard.

Mac: We sound quite similar in one way, but there
are many differences nevertheless, so we are actually quite complementary.

Your new album is much heavier and more doom oriented, than your previous work. Was there a special reason for this change in your sound?

There are always
different periods, when you certainly listen to different styles of music, get interested in other things... It's kind of growing.

Elias: I like bands, which are changing. When every album has same sound it can get boring. Everybody should do what they want, and what they feel. Some
bands, for example our good friend Parker Griggs, guitarist of Radio Moscow is really true to do that '70s "hard-drugs
sound". That's his natural passion, the thing he desires to do. For us, we just did the same thing - we made music we are interested in and
passionate about. We did not make
conscious decision to change our genre. It was all natural, it happened by
itself. And it is changing with our lives changing. When we play our old stuff, it works well together.

Did you make that playlist, that was in air before your show?

Yes, actually we created that playlist, thought that it would
be good introduction to our set. On this tour it's being the same one on each show.

I recognized Ty Segall
and Pentagram. What else was there?

Mark Lanegan, The Entrance Band and the actual intro to
our set, that track with only solo singer, was just really old blues...

Mac: I found that
recording in the collection of old film recordings from the Appalachian mountains. It's called "Conversation with Death" and it was record by the singer from Mountain Communities.

Where do you usually find new music?

Mostly from the bands you are playing with. We played with "Mars Red Sky" on this tour, French collective. There were a lot of bands we were
supported by on tour, but MRS were one we felt like "Wow, this guys are
really cool". They have their original sound and we were quite impressed.

What's your favorite album you recorded?

Every album we pulled out is a favorite, every time it
represents the condition during some period. But the least pressure, that was
put on us as a band, was spent on very first album, because we were careless and free, just did what we wanted to. So yeah, maybe the first album is a little
bit naive, but cool anyway. But on the other side, Lowlands is much
more confident work of ours.

And what about cover songs you're playing?

We covered "1969" by The Stooges - the last one, when we
returned to the stage and Lazlo Lee joined us there.

Was there a song, that came so spontaneously to you, that you wrote it in just a few minutes?

"Raise Hell" came from nowhere. This is song we wrote in a couple of hours one
day. It is actually b-side song of the album. We came
together and it just exploded. Very unusual, because commonly it takes months to finish a
song.

What can you say about your art work?

Kiryk Drewinski made art for our first and second album. He is from Germany and is also a musician. Right now he's playing with Wedge. We played twice with them actually, and he often give us lots of ideas and right direction.

Mac: Lowlands art is a work of local Baltimore
guy, he is actually my boss at work, Geoff Danek. He found a bunch of old photos and made them moldy, added
slides, aged effect, to reach this crazy colours etc. It was not made by computer.

Damn, I've forgotten the next question...

Mac: Aw, I know what you mean... Remember I was on the stage a few shows ago, wanted to say "It's great to be back here from the
last time..." - and could not
remember the name of "here"...

OK, I'm back. Are you keen to improvise?

Various. Some parts are improvised. You should find the right mix between. It's good
to take what's on the album and then if you are comfortable with that you can escape a little bit, but after that you should come
back to it. For example, sometimes we rework and rewrite songs on the stage and they sound quite different. It happened with
"Death Don't Make Me Cry''.

Let's remember, that show where you played with a saw?

Adam: Well, it all started when I was at the folk festival
in Virginia.

When you were young
and innocent?

Adam: Yes, I was younger, and I saw this girl, playing a saw.
That was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. So I went to hardware
store to buy a saw, and used my mom's old violin bow. And then I thought why not to make
it electric? Electric saw, why not? With the right effects and revers it worked
very well.

Your favorite model of guitar?

Adam: Rickenbacker, the most amazing guitar I've ever
played, all the way!

And Gibson SG, which I dropped on this tour and it is fucking broke, so I had to use glue to
fix it again.

Mac: Yes, Mexican
stuff. They are actually quite good. Also Aspire, Japanese guitars are as good as American Fender ones.

What occupies your life beside being a musician?

Mac: I work in a
rock-n-roll kind of bar-restaurant. And usually there are lots of shows with different bands.

Adam: Normally when I'm at home, besides music, I work in
pharmacy.

Is there a local venue, that you consider as your home?

Yes, suppose, "Golden West" can be named like
that. It's a small venue near our house.

Have you ever 'googled' yourself?

Everybody does! I even googled you, BTW. Sure. You can read
reviews of your work, check new videos on YouTube or anything you haven't seen before. Usually we look for what was posted about us. Sometimes you find bad reviews, which are total bullshit, so yeah occasionally you have to tear them down. Bad reviews are usually better than good ones, ha ha!

Adam: On tour I use one processor (which is mainly
focused on my spacey kind of settings),
then all my distortion and fuzz, all my tone comes out from my fuzz pedals, which are next to that.

Mac: Hah, Baltimore pedals.

Adam: Yeah, I have 3 fuzz pedals.

Do you think there is something you might experience and after that you can say: "I've done everything I wanted to"?

Adam: Before we came to Europe, I wanted to do all the stuff that we are doing right now, but after experiencing all this you just want to do more and your expectation are higher. I really like, that we are seeing a lot of the world and we went to India and looks like we're gonna play in Brazil. I don't know what to expect next. It's probably normal human condition, to always want more.

After eight long years, British music historian Vernon
Joynson, offers up this brand new revised and expanded version of his seminal
work chronicling UK Rock & Pop Of The Beat, R&B, Psychedelic & Progressive Eras
between 1963 and 1976. The new edition contains far too much information to be
contained within a single volume. The result is this massive two volume, 2064
page tome published by Borderline Productions and it is more than double the
length of its 2006 predecessor, and triple the length of the original 1995
edition! This is no mere update, however, as many new features have been added,
and each and every entry has been lovingly and meticulously rewritten. As the
author has commented, “this book is lovingly written and compiled by a
collector (helped by other collectors) for collectors and lovers of sixties and
seventies Rock & Pop.” The resulting
set indeed lives up to its lofty ambition of being "The Ultimate Guide To
UK Rock & Pop Of The Beat, R&B, Psychedelic & Progressive Eras 1963-1976."

So, what does the purchaser get in return for his or her
hard earned currency? As with previous editions "Tapestry" consists
of individual entries for each and every band or solo artist, presented in
alphabetical order. The entries have, as the title implies, been painstakingly
revised and expanded, greatly increasing their value to collectors and fans
alike. In addition, hundreds of new entries (large and small alike) have been
added to this new edition!

What information is contained in the entries you may ask?
First of all, an alphabetic list of personnel and the instrument or instruments
they play. Where more than one line-up occurs, they are likewise listed
alphabetically. The personnel information, in conjunction with the artist or
band's album discography, indicates which album or albums (vinyl and CD alike),
if any, the individual played on. The extremely detailed album discographies
include the title of the LP or CD, the label and catalog number and the year of
release, along with comments on original releases and reissues alike. Where
more than one has been released, they are listed in order of release.
Compilation albums and CDs are indicated as such in the listing. Unlike
previous editions comprehensive information about overseas issues and reissues
is included, greatly expanding the discographies of many bands. The incredible amount of information
regarding original and reissue releases alike makes this new edition absolutely
essential for every collector’s library.

An exhaustive section devoted to retrospective compilations
of artists' recordings is included where applicable. Detailed descriptions of
the compilations (number of tracks, inclusion of essential recordings,
rarities, etc.) are given as well as the title, label, catalog number and release
date being included. Information regarding box sets and multi-disc releases are
covered in this section with an emphasis on the most comprehensive releases
available as well as comments on releases to be avoided or purchased with
caution.

The extensively detailed discographies of EPs and 45s are
listed in order of release, but unlike previous editions the EP discographies
now include detailed track listings, and overseas as well as UK issues. The EP and 45 discographies also contain
label, catalog number and year of release information, all absolutely essential
information for collectors.

Without question the most important addition to this new
edition is the "About The Band And Its Music" section which offers
extensively detailed descriptions of the artist's sound as well as detailed
analyses of the music and in many cases critiques which serve as an invaluable
tool for collectors, aiding them in deciding which bands and/or releases they
pursue. This addition alone may well be worth the cost of the book.

Following the tradition of previous editions the new two
volume edition is profusely illustrated. Hundreds and hundreds of photos are
interspersed throughout the text. Furthermore, each volume has an 8 page full
color section devoted to album cover art.

Lastly, the UK rarity scale has been completely revised.
LPs, EPs and 45s which are rare and sought after have been given a rarity
rating. This scale acts as a guide to the value of particular releases and is
yet another reference tool for collectors.

Great care has been taken by the author to assure the
accuracy of each entry's contents. With a work of this depth and breadth
quality control is of utmost importance. Having given the volumes a thorough
examination I can attest to the accuracy and detail contained within the two
volumes. It is at once quite obvious that this project is indeed a labor of
love executed with incredible passion by the author.

The two volume "Tapestry Of Delights" is available
in two formats. The softbound edition is available from both Amazon.com and
Amazon.co.uk and can be obtained in the US at a cost of $100 give or take, and
in the UK for comparable prices. There is also a strictly limited, numbered
(600 copies) hardback set which can be obtained from fine booksellers in the US
and UK. The cost of the hardbound copies is approximately $250 plus shipping in
the US and 100-125 pounds sterling plus shipping in the UK. I must add that the
faux leather bound copies with gold embossed lettering are absolutely
breathtaking!

To sum it up, "The Tapestry Of Delights" is,
without doubt, the seminal work regarding Rock & Pop Of The Beat, Psychedelic & Progressive Eras from the UK between 1963 and 1976. It should be a
mandatory part of any true record collector's library and essential reading for
music collectors and fans alike. The only real question is whether to purchase
the hardbound or softbound edition. You can't go wrong either way!

It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine has a few questions for
Vernon Joynson

Author of “The Tapestry Of Delights Expanded Two Volume
Edition”

Hi Vernon, thanks for taking the time to tell our readers
about your seminal work on UK Psychedelic & Progressive Rock “The Tapestry Of
Delights.’

What inspired you to write “Tapestry Of Delights” and how
did you decide on the title?

When I was building up my personal collection in the late
seventies and early eighties I was frustrated by the limited coverage that many
of the Rock & Pop encyclopaedias of the time gave to the albums I was looking
for. I set out to try to rectify this and ensure that many bands who may not
have got the recognition they deserved originally got more acclaim
retrospectively. I wrote my first book “The Acid Trip” an introductory guide to
psychedelia in 1982. This predominantly covered the US & UK and as I delved
deeper and deeper into the subject matter I produced further volumes under the
title of “The Flashback” (first published in June 1988).

By the early nineties I decided to start work on a trilogy
of books whose scope went wider than psychedelia. In any case it had proved
quite challenging deciding which acts should and should not be included in the
earlier “Acid Trip” and “Flashback” books, as many acts went through a
psychedelic phase in the 1966-1969 era, whilst their music in other eras was
not psychedelic. Incidentally, both of these books are outdated now and I would
not recommend that you buy them. If you want to purchase any of my books always
go for the most recent edition of the trilogy below.

The first part of the trilogy was “Fuzz, Acid and Flowers: A
Comprehensive Guide To American Garage and Hippie Rock 1964-1975”, which was
first published in August 1993.

The second part was “The Tapestry of Delights: The
Comprehensive Guide to British Music Of The Beat, R&B, Psychedelic & Progressive Eras 1963-1976”, which was first published in September 1995.

The final part of the trilogy was “Dreams Fantasies and Nightmares
From Faraway Lands: Canadian, Australasian and Latin American Rock & Pop
1963-1975”, which was first published in September 1999.

I thought of all these book titles (not all at the same
time) whilst lying in the sun and thinking deeply in our back garden!! You
don’t get a lot of sun in England and I find I’m often at my most relaxed and
creative when I’m savouring it and no-one else is around!

How many pages long was the first edition of The Tapestry
of Delights” and how many artist/band entries were included? How many copies were printed?

The first edition was 600 pages long and I think around
4,000 copies were printed. I don’t know how many entries were included but the
book’s scope aimed to cover mainstream Rock & Pop, Merseybeat, R&B, folk,
folk-rock, jazz-rock, blues-rock, psychedelia, freakbeat, glam-rock and
progressive rock. The scope of the book was much wider than the Fuzz book
because the UK is a much smaller country and had far less acts in this era.

The book was reprinted in September 1996 and again in June
1998. I think each reprint had a
supplement at the end with some additional information.

Wasn’t there an online version of “Tapestry” at one
time?” Who came up with the idea? How was it maintained and how long did it
exist? How did this affect the number of
hard copy books sold?

There were online versions of all three books (“Tapestry”,
“Fuzz” and “Dreams”) for a while. They were devised and maintained by the
publisher but it became too time-consuming and it did affect sales of the hard
copy books. In short it became uneconomic to continue to do this.

When was the updated “Tapestry Of Delights Revisited”
published? How many entries did
“Revisited” contain? How many copies
were printed compared to the first edition?

“The Tapestry Of Delights Revisited” book was published in
May 2006. I don’t know how many entries
it contained, but there were certainly a lot more than in the 1995 edition. It
was 978 pages long and I’m not sure how many copies were printed, but it would
have been in the region of 3,000. There
was also a reprint in 2008.

Now, regarding the new Expanded Two Volume Edition of
“Tapestry.”

When was the decision made to expand “Tapestry” from one
volume to two? How long did it take to complete
this massive project, from conception to publication?

When I started on the latest revision I was aiming for the
book to be the same sort of size as the September 2010 revision of the “Fuzz”
book, which was just over 1,400 pages.

However, with the much more detailed discographies, more
comment on the music and many more new entries, it soon became apparent that
the book was going to be too large to be bound as one book, especially if I
wanted there to be a hardback edition too, which I did. So mid-way through it
became apparent that to include everything I wanted the book would have to
extend over two volumes. I do feel bad about this because it is inevitably more
expensive and heavier for the punters as a result.

It took four years of intensive research to complete the
latest version of “Tapestry”. If I hadn’t retired from my full-time occupation
in October 2012 it would have taken considerably longer. Retirement has freed
up much more time for me to work on the books, but I have quite a lot of other
interests too, so I always have to juggle my time to fit in all the things I
want to do, even now.

How many pages are contained in the new edition? Can you give us an idea of how many entries
are included? How does this compare with
the previous editions?

Volume 1 (A-K) has 1,024 pages plus an eight-page colour
section.

Volume 2 (L-Z) has 1,040 pages plus an eight-page colour
section.

So, 2,064 pages in all, plus 16 pages of colour.

I’m sorry but I don’t know the precise number of
entries. It would take a long time to
count them, but there are many, many more than in the 2006 edition and almost
every entry has been rewritten and expanded. If you own the earlier editions I
think you will want this and it should make a great present for serious fans of
music from this era.

The volumes are profusely illustrated, each containing an
eight page section of full color album cover art, and photos accompanying
hundreds of the entries. Do you know how
many photos adorn the two volumes? How
was it decided which album art to include?

I’m sorry I don’t know precisely how many illustrations in
all are included but we aimed for one black & white illustration per page
(except in the compilation section at the end of volume two). I have a computer whizz friend of mine called
Ivor Truman who does all the lay out of the books (including the colour
sections) alongside a full-time job. I give him some guidance about what to
include but he has a lot of local discretion too. We aim to use the original
album cover art wherever we can, but in the case of many entries the artists
did not make albums or we don’t have access to them so we have to use CD covers
and retrospective compilations, etc. I am much indebted to Ivor. I believe he always
does a great job for me. I am also very grateful to my good friend Bill
Allerton who supplied lots of interesting illustrations for this edition
too.

Since 1994, the cover art for all my books (except the punk
one) has comprised extracts from paintings by the artist Andrew Linsell. I am
very grateful to him and to Richard Allen, the former co-owner of Delerium
Records/Freakbeat who originally put me in touch with Andrew. The feedback I get on Andrew’s covers is
always very positive.

Entries contain extensive descriptions, complementing
exhaustive discographies, of artists’ music and in many cases offer critiques
to aid collectors in deciding which bands and recordings to pursue. How was it possible to realize this most
ambitious goal?

Well it took a lot of very careful and time-consuming
research to compile the discographies, which are far more detailed than in
previous volumes. Keeping abreast of all the reissues is particularly
challenging and I have several sources I work from.

The ability to listen to so much more music online in the
last few years (for example, I never cease to be amazed by what I can find on
utube) has made it easier to comment on the music of a much wider range of
artists than was possible in earlier volumes, when I was largely reliant on my
own collection and comments and tapes, etc from other collectors.

The two volume edition is available in two formats. How many copies of the softbound version are
available and where can they be obtained?
There is also an absolutely stunning hardbound version available. How many copies of the limited edition,
hand-numbered, faux leather with gold embossed lettering were printed? How can readers obtain these hardbound sets?

I think around 2,500 sets of the softbound version were
printed and they are widely available from most of the outlets you’d expect to
purchase a music book from. I don’t think anyone will have a problem finding a
copy, but they may have to shop around a bit for the best deal.

The hardback version was commissioned by a distributor
called F. Minor who is handling its distribution exclusively. Just 600
hand-numbered books were printed. (Back
in 2007 the same distributor handled a hardback version of 2004 edition of the
“Fuzz” book).

If you live in the UK or Europe you can obtain a copy of the
hardback 2-Volume Set of “Tapestry” for £99.99 plus postage from F. Minor, Unit
8, Commercial Mews North, 45a Commercial Road, Eastbourne, Sussex BN21 3XF,
Tel: +44 (0)13-2373-6598, Fax: +44 (0)13-2373-8763 or e-mail paul@fminor.com.

The list below is not exhaustive because some stock went to
distributors so we’ve no idea where they’ve ended up, but I’ve listed other
outlets who currently stock the book.

If you live in the UK, stockists include Rough Trade,
Heyday, Spin or Juno. If you live in Germany try Ohrwashel. In Japan try Disk
Union and in the US try Lion Productions and Doug Larson.

Thank you so much for participating in this short interview
and congratulations on bringing this most ambitious project to fruition. Is there anything we have not addressed that
readers should be made aware of? Any
final thoughts for our readers?

It’s been a pleasure answering your questions. Thank you for
taking the time to think of the questions and for allowing my project the space
on your website. Whilst I do most of the writing of these books myself, I also
have a small band of helpers for each project. I always include credits for
them in the Foreword of each book. For
example, US garage expert Max Waller has played a key role in “Fuzz” books in
the past. For the latest “Tapestry” volume, folk expert Mike Warth and
freelance music journalist Nick Warburton have been my main helpers, but there
are other too who are detailed in the book’s foreword.

To my readers, I do appreciate that you are being asked to
pay quite a lot of money for these books because of their size and weight
(particularly when they are purchased overseas). For this reason I will be
sticking to single volume books in the future, so I hope you will view this
particular purchase as a one-off.

Finally, thanks so much for all the support you’ve given to
my projects to date.

I was just thinking there, after listening to this
astonishingly groovy set again, and also some of Balduin's previous Rainbow
Tapes material, that this is actually how I imagined Nick Nicely could’ve
sounded had he also thought to create his very own LP back around the time of
'Vox Dreams' and the great 'Hilly Fields' single, that were issued (the latter
on EMI) at the very beginning of the 1980s.

However, putting such strange, odd little parallels aside,
let us now meet Balduin, Switzerland's supremely gifted solo artist /
multi-instrumental playing, one-man band
sensation who is currently, and effervescently so, keen to embrace many of the
wide-eyed, wide-ranging, not to mention inherently melodic waves now being brought
back, and forward (again and again) into focus. In doing so it’s creating a
beautiful swirling movement of flowing sounds that are now cresting on a sea of
mindblowing pop-style psychedelia; this daring do perhaps even more so than the
likes of fellow journeyman Jacco Gardner; and all manner of other wily,
enquiring, relatively young minds that are operating and experimenting from as
far afield as Britain, and Spain, to California and beyond in these last few
years. And now Switzerland!

Torn between the frequent accessibility of the pre- '68 /
full-bearded Beatles goings on and some of the thought-provoking angles and
intelligent pop-absurdism that emanates from the recordings by early Pink
Floyd, Donovan, Incredible String Band, Jason Crest and, say, well just for
argument's sake Boeing Duveen & the Beautiful Soup. The last I mention
because of our hero's seemingly abiding passion for Dr. Hutt's oddly strange
and weirdly prescriptive formula; not only has he covered the confusingly brilliant
'Which Dreamed It' right here within the grooves of All In A Dream but he’d
already thought to include a hugely tasty version of the Duveen's wickedly
whacked-out topside wonder 'Jabberwock' as part of a liquidly languid golden
pearl of an EP issued earlier this year called The Glamour Forest.

However, it's perhaps in the sheer breadth of seemingly
fearless musical and lyrical glad-roaming found within the words and music of
some of his own self-composed works that the indomitable spirit of Balduin is at
its most creative; highly-charged, and spanglingly illuminating. This is where
the likes of 'Kite Come Back' with its filigree air, the instantaneously grasp
of 'Change', 'Glamour Forest' itself (the shimmeringly beautiful cut that's not
included on the EP of the same name) and the altogether more spiritual sounding
and highly personalised tones he adopts in 'Father', plus many more palpable,
tangible, kinetic, Lennon-esque passages ... Some of what's happening within is
difficult to aptly describe, and perhaps what each individual recipient also
feels will be different, like the rise of some new, or at least untapped
emotion breaking through; music like this can sometimes be that with us as the
conduit as we drift into reverie, or zone out completely.

Many of the selections here add such extra-appealing
features as mellotron, sitar, flute, plentiful juicy fuzz licks, plus a whole
kaboodle of passionately executed simplistic, effective drum patterns and
deliciously played soft guitar strummings. So as you can imagine, there's more
than enough to make a whole new world of intrigue and mystery for you to
explore. Everything heard seems to weave to and fro enmeshed in sets of
well-chosen lyrics, and well-placed vocal rhymes; some new, others borrowed,
some ching, others vibrate while one or two disappear almost as soon as they
arrive.

Almost instantly the rewards will be most obvious whichever
way you look at it and, in fact, almost everything Balduin has utilised here
works in some practical way or is an artistic endeavour that helps formulate
what is fast becoming one of the modern music world's most excellently realised
psychedelic art-pop aural installations! Hear, see, feel, float, trip!

Balduin interview conducted by Lenny Helsing September 2014

Lenny Helsing: Well I suppose the first thing to establish
really is when did you get into music in general, and more specifically, how
and when did you then migrate towards the psychedelic sounds of the 60s?

Balduin: My first musical instrument I learned was Swiss
dulcimer. I could choose which instrument I wanted to learn. My music teacher
said my hands could play every instrument I would like so I chose the dulcimer.
Later on I switched to classical guitar and took some beginner's lessons and learned
picking basic chords. From then on I started to cover and recorded demo tapes
for myself and formed a band with my friend who played the drums. We were the
youngest band in our village and played in church and several other occasions.

How long have you been writing songs, and what kind of
songs did you start out writing?

To be honest some of the songs or bits of it are on
"All In A Dream". ‘Autumn’ for example is one of my first songs I
wrote when I was around 14 years old. Playing guitar really helped with writing
my own songs and learn from playing covers like ‘Arnold Layne’, ‘I Am The
Walrus’ and ‘Blackbird’. But the dulcimer gave me the skills in hearing and
playing notes immediately.

One can detect some of the prime influences that pop up
in your songs, first a few on the "Rainbow Tapes" set then a few
stronger realisations on your first UK release the fantastic EP "The
Glamour Forest", and also now being heard throughout your debut LP which
is also on the Sunstone label, "All In A Dream", such as the Beatles,
early Pink Floyd, a touch of the Incredible String Band too perhaps, and a few
more besides from the English '67 scene, but I wonder if you could tell me
which names have had the most impact on you as a songwriter and creator in this
regard?

Today I would say all of them now and even more bands I
still don't know ;). But before deffo The Beatles and the early Pink Floyd. The
ISB came much later when I was exploring Gong and Krautrock. Much of the music
from the 60s I discovered through listening to "modern" music like
The Orb, KLF, Boards Of Canada, Ultramarine, Wagon Christ etc.. They sampled
and mentioned them in their music so I was more curious in the roots than what
is going on today. Without knowing of the ISB I would have definitely missed a
bright spectrum of what's in the music. Thank god for knowing them.

You play all the instruments yourself and do all the
singing, and you also took care of all the arrangements, musical direction and
the production side of things on the album too is this correct? If so, why so
... why no group for example?

My early experiences in playing within a band were
interesting and I learned a lot. But I always was the homebrew musician
recording stuff by myself. This takes less time and I can record whenever I
want and change things without asking my group members. This appears egotistic
but it is even cheaper and takes less space too. What I miss by doing it all by
myself is the feeling of live playing. Still today I think recording an album
and playing live is a total different thing. In the studio in need my own time
recording the music how I want. Some instrumental parts are tricky and don't get alive
with overdubbing. My dream for my next album is to have a combination of both.

A few of the selections, like ‘Kite Come Back’, and ‘You
Can Never Pipe My Fancy From You My Dear’ remind me of some of the feeling and
atmosphere that Nick Nicely made back at the very beginning of the 1980s, are
you familiar with any of his material such as the great EMI single Hilly Fields
(1892) ... ?

Nope. I know the Dukes of Stratosphear but not Nick
Nicely yet. Will definitely check it out then. Thanks!

The likes of 'Father' to me has quite a spiritual
dimension and so I wondered if this was also your intention? And also were you
listening in again to the Beatles, and Lennon in particular, for some extra
inspiration here?

Lennon wrote ‘Mother’, I wrote ‘Father’. There was no
intention for me to copy his song. My message is different as in Lennon's
‘Mother’ but it's obvious that people get curious. It's the most personal and
touchy one on the album. I wrote this for my Dad because I really miss him. I think it
can't be sung a second time in that way and captures a big emotional feeling.

Going back to your "Rainbow Tapes" recordings
and specifically the likes of ‘Lily Sees Dandelion’, ‘Years Ago’ and ‘Jump In
The Past (A Horse And A Car)’ ... what was going on in your mind to concoct
such as these lyrical tales ... and I'm thinking that the Beatles, and perhaps
the Incredible String Band again could have been sitting on your turntable
around that time. Certainly something like ‘Jump In The Past’ gives me that
nice warm feeling I get when the Incredibles are playing?

Sure I played them constantly. I recorded "Rainbow
Tapes" during 1994-96. During the initial recording sessions, my roof room
window was covered by snow. The whole roof room was lit up in white. This light
influenced the recording of "Rainbow Tapes". Some soundscapes were
recorded with tape loops, either played backwards, higher or in a lower pitch.
You'll definitely hear the inspiration; "Rainbow Tapes" is my first
example into the psychedelic studio music era in the late 1960s. Compared to my
latest album "Rainbow Tapes" is less pop but more experimental and
lo-fi. "All In A Dream" is the growing father of "Rainbow
Tapes", it's ten years later and many things have changed.

We heard the great dramatic tones of ‘Jabberwock’ on
your "The Glamour Forest" EP and now we have ‘Which Dreamed It’ on
the album. As these were both sides of the 1968 single by English psychster(s)
Boeing Duveen and the Beautiful Soup - in reality Dr. Sam Hutt (in later years
trading as the eccentric country pub-rocker Hank Wangford) may I ask why you
decided on covering not just one but both sides of that 45. Gleefully realised
and authentic to the max too, of course, but I just wondered what your reasoning
behind this was ... other than that they are both charming and outrageously
psyched-out compositions?

That song ‘Jabberwock’ I discovered first thanks to the
“Rubble: Magic Rocking Horse" sampler and was amazed by the similarity of
Syd's early Pink Floyd songs. Later I found out that he even hung around with
Syd at that time, there's even a photograph. Years later I found the original
7" and paid the price. I'm now a proud owner of this 45. I think it's
still one of the best in music which was released in that period but wasn't
known by many people. Even now. The reason why I left out the B-Side ‘Which
Dreamed It’ is simply because I didn't record it yet. I always was afraid of
that sitar part but finally managed to play it. Maybe ‘Jabberwock’ had to be
challenged first before getting into more dreamful areas ;) I think Simon from
Sunstone gave me the final incentive to cover it finally. A similar thing
happened with the EP name "The Glamour Forest". The song itself is
missing on the EP but appears on "All In A Dream".

I also wondered, do you always use a full acoustic drum
kit, or is there a mix of real live hitting and some modern electronic kit
action going on ... it sounds a little perhaps like the drums are umm perhaps a
little treated in some way?

I hadn't got the opportunity to use a full kit. But I did
use some live snare hits and mixed it in with some recorded drum kits which I
mostly recorded or from libraries I owned.

Thanks so much Balduin, as I think I said to you already I
love your music and really hope the album is a smash success for you and can go
onto reach into the hearts and minds of many listeners out there today! Cheers
and many thanks again.

“Left For Dead” began its life 13 years ago when poet John Galuska invited the trio to contribute music to accompany some poems he wrote and an electronic piece of music he had recorded. Under the influence of strong psychedelics, the band recorded an hour of improvisational music and the project was left to linger. Last year, Sun Zoom Spark guitarist Eric Johnson revisited the project and edited their recording and added some overdubs, mixed and mastered the album and now it is available for you to wrap your own head around.

The original psychedelic jam has been edited into distinct segments which Johnson gave titles to, and Galuska is also on hand with exceprts from his lengthy electronic piece that gave the project its name. But the affair begins with the ominous ‘Put Out All The Sounds’, which is sort of an Overture to lay the groundwork for the journey ahead. Drummer Bryan Kohl lays down a funky backbeat to propel ‘Round Again’ through a series of electronic bleeps and bloops that are like twinkling stars bouncing off your synapses as you journey through the cosmos.

Johnson tinkles his way through a mellow, jazzy piano riff under a searing guitar solo and some progressive keyboard swashes for the lazy, dreamy ‘Left For Life’, which leads into the first of Galuska’s three electronic ‘Transmission’ pieces. The band hit their stride with the enveloping chaos of ‘Masterpiece By Midnight’, full of flailing drums, wailing guitars, and sailing keyboards which is satiated by another of Galuska’s eerie electronic ‘Transmissions’ (this one a bit like those small furry animals that Roger Waters was grooving along with in a cave with a pict back in his “Ummagumma” daze. This brings us to the album’s title track and 17-minute centerpiece that again begins with a catchy-yet-simple riff reminiscent of Miles’ “Kind of Blue” which slowly morphs into a supernova of mind-assaulting electrical explosions, bubbling brooks, haunted house organ, and eerie, pant-shittin’ sound effects that sound like something’s trying to gnaw its way into your brain to feast on a few fried brain cells for dinner. Mmm, mmm, good! Thank goodness for the trippy, mellow respite that is ‘If We Wait’ to help us float safely back down to Earth! This is closer to vintage Black Sun Ensemble (ca. “Lambent Flame”) than the heavier elements earlier in this album.

In addition to the Galuska piece, the trio took a preliminary run through Black Sun Ensemble’s Eastern-tinged, Arab-flavoured ‘Jewel of The Seven Seas’ (featuring some tasty banjo from Johnson), which would eventually find a home on their “Starlight” album, released several years later on the collectable Australian label Camera Obscura. Hearing this early incarnation is a revelatory experience in understanding how the late BSE guitarist Jesus Acedo’s mind worked – taking the vestiges of the track and inserting his personality…and acid-fried solos!

The whole endeavor is one long, groovy, psychedelic trip, akin to both Bardo Pond’s Hash Jar Tempo collaboration with Roy Montgomery, with a little taste of those vintage krautrock grooves from the likes of Brainticket and Ash Ra Tempel, as well as nods in the general direction of Mushroom and Black Sun Ensemble, whose membership at various times included members from Sun Zoom Spark. So if you’re a fan of any of these projects – or exploratory, improvisational hallucinatory “head music”, you owe it to yourself to check out the latest from the always inventive Sun Zoom Spark.

Nihilist Spasm Band was formed in London, Ontario in 1965 and soon became one of the weirdest music collective to the present day. Back in the late '60s music became flooded with flower power fashion and everyone tried to join a 'rock'n'roll' band, but there were still a lot of groups who didn't care much about the fashion and tried to take their own music to the next level. Among them were experimental bands like Red Krayola, Cromagnon and a lot of others. Nihilist Spasm Band was even weirder than aforementioned groups and I can barely imagine a teenager, professor or anyone in particular buying their record solely because of the cover artwork, which looked pretty bizarre. Purchaser probably expected some innocent novelty record – but what happened next probably shocked them. We are talking about 1968, remember that. Sure you had a lot of freak'n'roll music around, but mostly people were used to regular radio friendly music (not that today is any better, even worse).
From the very start of their album you can hear loud growling voice screaming: "Destroy the Nations. England is dead! Destroy America. Sheuggghhhh on Canada!". You can only imagine how the recent LP owner felt when hearing this.
In the following interview we will go through their musical journey. They are still active after so many years. The beginning can be attributed to Greg Curnoe (1936-1992) (among other factors), who was a film director and wanted to do a soundtrack for his upcoming 16 mm film.
Curnoe decided to do something unconventional and bought a lot of kazoos and gathered some friends to perform free-improvisations using aforementioned instruments. They realized they are enjoying improvisational performance and after soundtrack was made, they built larger kazoos and added one-string acoustic bass and also an unusual drum set. They made another step and plugged everything into electricity. Soon they added electric guitars, electric violin, theremin and everything that they felt it was cool. Even building weird instrument like 'noisemaker' and stuff like that didn't stop them. They went further, recorded and toured in places like Paris and London, but most of the time they were really an obscure collective of friends, playing whatever they liked and that is the main reason why I find them as one of the most interesting groups.
I have always been a lover of improvisational music. I think a lot of people have whole different perception when it comes to improvised or experimental music. Technical ability is highly regarded among most of the regular listeners, but for me that is not important aspect of music; meaning that I truly believe music is an extension of individual performer who is translating the language of his soul or emotion into the language of music and when everything is made without any restriction or intention, catharsis is possible. To understand music you don't need any education, because music is the language we all can understand. We will always cope with obstacle of moral nature, which individual listener is experiencing while listening to music and his perception of understanding.

Greg Curnoe co-founded Nihilist Spasm Band in 1965 to make a
soundtrack for his movie. What was the name of the film? Was it ever released?

Bill Exley: The title was "No
Movie", and it included scenes from Nihilist Lodge in Port Stanley, Ontario,
which our group rented for two summers in 1965 and 1966, and also scenes from
the first Nihilist Banquet, which included a formal programme of speeches about
the history of nihilism and other toasts to the past and future, together with
the singing of "God Save the King" (he had died in the early '50s).The movie also included scenes from the first
Nihilist Picnic, which featured races such as "women’s kick the shoe".(The 50th annual Nihilist Picnic was held on
September 7, 2014.)There were also
scenes from a lacrosse game and people drinking in the York Hotel. "Connexions"was another movie made by Greg
about people and places in London, Ontario.

The Nihilist Spasm Band with Greg Curnoe in 1966. From left,
Greg Curnoe, John Boyle, Hugh McIntyre, John Clement, Murray Favro. Vocalist
Bill Exley's megaphone is on the right.Photo: Don Vincent

Murray Favro: The movie although Greg’s project was also a collaboration. Hugh McIntyre (later a band member) who worked as a film
librarian had much to do with making it he had the connections to get editing
done on "No Movie". He also supplied cuts of a Farnburogh Air Show as well as
undersea creatures like octopuses and sea snakes. I am unsure but think it was Drew Gilles of the National
Film Board who did the actual film editing because neither Hugh nor Greg could
operate editing equipment. The first kazoo involved in our nihilist activities was at
the first nihilist picnic in the same location where some of the filming for
the movie was done.

When Greg saw the film cuts of all us London people playing
Kazoos at the beach, that gave Greg the idea to use a kazoo sound track. The soundtrack was recorded in Greg’s studio in that fall
or winter. It was a lot of us and I believe we watched the film as we played
for the soundtrack. It was so much fun to see it and hear us make noises. And
best of all it needed no synching up it would always connect up somewhere
interesting. Like a sea creature cut would sometimes line up with a weird sound
or a jet would make a near fart sound that exploded into wild noise. It worked
as a separate tape soundtrack not actually on the film. The movie was shown in art galleries across Canada and I
think Greg had it in a local film co-op who made it available. It was never
released it remained an experimental art movie. The chaotic sounds in that sound track had an interesting
high energy to it that got us rather jokingly talking about what if we formed a
band. Hugh thought more of it than a mere joke because within a few days he
showed up at my studio holding a small Kazoo and a funnel he wanted to make a
louder kazoo for the band we were talking about. I could not join them up so we went to Greg’s studio his
power drill and somehow joined the two things together. Greg got excited about
having us form a band. And was soon rounding up people to talk about it. Art
Pratten was there within a day or two and Greg got John Clement who had already
made a 12 string guitar as well as a Archie Leach who assured us would be a
good addition since he was known to hang out 3rd story windows and shout
insults to people walking by on the sidewalk below. Archie always wore a suit
coat and tie and was working as a bookkeeper. He seemed a contradiction and
probably a danger to himself but anyway we tried him and his harmonica, which
didn’t seem to work with our stuff. He gave up on the harmonica and invented a
slide clarinet that was loud and perfect for our band. Exley and Boyle were in it by then too they would come to
London on weekends from their jobs out of town. Billy Exley however did not
want to ruin his teaching career so anytime we were to play in public he would
wear a monkey mask. Greg, Boyle and Pratten made kazoos and we all collected
used drums. Hugh had someone make him what he called a 'gut bucket bass' this consisted
of a 5 gallon metal drum with one string and a levered neck to change the notes
as he played. I played drums some of the time and a thing with strings on it
that needed amplification. Exley sang through a huge megaphone on a stand. This was the beginning before amplification that soon came
as I made guitars and Hugh had an electric bass made. By the time of our Allied recording we were all amplified.

Nihilist
Spasm Band on the top of Greg Curnoe's studio. May, 1966. Photo: Don Vincent

Art Pratten: "No Movie", it did get some
circulation and then became a myth with a lost soundtrack.

John Boyle: It was released and later
the soundtrack was lost without a trace.

Do you know his original idea behind making improvisational
soundtrack?

Art Pratten: A soundtrack was needed and like everything
else at the time if you wanted or needed something you just went out and did
it. We had some kazoos we obtained more and a group of about 15
to 20 sat around in a circle and kazood.

John Boyle: Someone found some red and black (actually red and navy
blue) 25 cent kazoos and we thought they looked like Nihilist colours of red
and black. People sat around in Greg’s
studio (he was a painter) and threw ideas around. He decided on his friends improvising on
kazoos because the film was about connections among families and friends and
the interdependence of people.

How did you know him and where did you all meet?

Bill Exley: I met Greg at a party on Talbot Street in London, Ontario in
January, 1961.I had brought a recording
of Ravi Shankar classical Indian ragas, and he borrowed it from me and invited
me to his studio to get it back. Greg
was then interested in new ideas of all kinds, and he retained this
intellectual interest in a variety of topics all his life.He was interested in jazz, for example, but
he also listened to French eighteenth century music, recordings of Ezra Pound
and other twentieth century poets, and he read writers like George Grant, who
had written "Lament for a Nation" in 1965, a book about the importance of
Canadian nationalism.Through most of
the almost 50 year history of the Band the members conversed, not only about
making noise, but also about politics, arts, ideas, etc.This kind of discussion was a part of the
vitality people felt when they heard us.

Murray Favro: I met Greg by going to his studio when I was in my last year
in art school. I wanted to see what a studio looked like and how do I get to
rent one once I finish art school. My teachers advised me to get a studio and
begin working. They knew Greg was back from Toronto and started working in a
studio in London. Ron Martin another art student knew Greg and had suggested we
should drop by on our way back from a trip to a Picasso show in Toronto. I was
impressed by Greg’s artwork and studio. It was at Greg’s studio that I met other people who
eventually became part of the band. Greg is the only artist I have met who could paint and carry
on a conversation with a number of people. He had a lot of chairs to sit on and
lots of people came and went as he worked. Every Saturday Hugh would buy a few cases of beer they went
into a big thing with ice in it we sat around and had a few beers people would
show up a lot of nurses someone had met and other beautiful young ladies would
arrive, Greg would put on records and it became a party. People who were around
in the creative influence of that time went on to do interesting things
elsewhere, one person went to head the national film board, another went to run
and edit Arts Canada Magazine. Tony Pennicott later became premier of the
Yukon. The point I am making is there was a cultural scene of creative and
interesting people and lots of them, and a place like Greg’s studio was
important as a meeting place.

Art Pratten: Greg and I grew up in the same neighborhood,
went to a couple of the same schools and took newspaper from the same depot.

John Boyle: We were all independently friends with Greg or with one or
another of his friends, some from early childhood. We met in his loft studio in downtown London. I was introduced to Greg by my friend Bob
McKenzie in 1960. Greg took an interest
in me because I had decided to become and artist.Curnoe was also a member of London Regionalism. Can you tell
us what was that about?

Murray Favro: London Regionalism was a way of thinking for Greg not a
thing he belonged to. The way I understood him was the way he emphasized that art
need not emulate what is happening in a place like New York but is as relevant
no matter where it is done and need not emulate anything. In short Greg needed
other creative people to talk to in his own environment. He valued the Nihilist
Spasm Band because it was not like mainstream culture, and would be an honest
export from this region and as relevant as any other creative works from
anywhere else. We are however not
his invention I was showing my work in other cities within a year of getting my
first studio here in London. Greg did encourage people to stay here though
which actually is OK but rather unrealistic because the world was becoming very
mobile at that time and every artist that lived in London then is long gone
except myself. The concepts of the band are no leader no planned musical
direction where everyone plays what they want. We are all individuals in the band and one of us (Bill the
singer) who wants some predictable words and structure to our song pieces. We
do restrain ourselves at the beginning of his reading of the lyrics. But in the
past he used to insult the audiences but now likes them and insults band
members to be quiet while he reads the important words. We agree with him but just find it difficult to be quiet.

Art Pratten: The idea grew out of the belief you could find
inspiration and resources locally and since none of us were interested in
leaving necessity was turned into a virtue.

John Boyle: There was no London Regionalism organization. Greg was from London and loved London. He thought London was as relevant and important culturally as any other place, including New York, Paris or the other London. This was revolutionary thinking for many of us, to love the region you came from. We lived and continue to live in a colonial culture that tends to think that anything produced here is inferior to things produced in the Mother or Dominant culture, e.g. England, France and the United States.

Did any of you have any musical knowledge?

Art Pratten: We all had a knowledge and appreciation of
music, but no formal training.

John Boyle: In spite of what some of us may claim, the answer is NO!

What do you think was the main inspiration and influence for
Nihilist Spasm Band back in the '60s?

Bill Exley: London, Ontario was a conservative (in the bad sense) and
unadventurous kind of place, and I thinkthis environment created in many young people the desire to be hostile.

Murray Favro: In the 1960’s I cannot think of any influences on the band
except to have fun making energetic sounds.

Art Pratten: I think the building of the instrument was the
catalyst for the band. We could have gone on listening to music, arguing about
music and kazooing forever but when we
started modifying kazoos and building new instrument we really started to
compete making a noise and this created a "Noise Band".

John Boyle: We each individually had our own tastes, interests,
influences and inspirations, not necessarily shared by any of the others. We each brought ours to the group. All of us were necessarily influenced by the
others’ influences whether we liked them or not, simply because we were forced
to deal with them in our group improvisations until we found something we were
more or less happy with. For example, a
few of us were aware of New Wave free jazz like Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler
or Cecil Taylor, while others liked Mediaeval Troubadour music or English
madrigals, or the Rolling Stones. We
learned to throw our licks at each other and bounce them back and forth. If you hated some things you tried to drown
them out with your sound, and thus we became noisier and noisier.

What influences you these days?

Murray Favro: Our influences have always been the moment and the space we play in along with our equipment and listening to the other members. It is a very immediate experience and not a real influence.

Art Pratten: Just about everything.

John Boyle: I just try to listen carefully to the many improvisers we
meet at festivals and performances and learn from them when there is something
that might benefit or change my playing. I like much of what I hear , but have not yet heard anything that would
radically change what we do.

What was the scene in London, Ontario back then? Where did
you hang out?

Murray Favro: At first we hung out at Greg’s studio but it soon changed to be at the York Hotel. And that also was where the band began playing every Monday night we packed the place we also got a lot of press coverage outside London in magazines and newspapers.

It was on one of these Mondays that Bosswell head of Allied records came to hear us and during an intermission talked to us outside the York. He wanted to bring out a record of us. Soon we recorded the album in Toronto. That is how we got the record deal by Bosswell coming himself to hear us.

The Nihilist Spasm Band in 1968 at York Hotel. They played every Monday night in their pub for several years.From left, Hugh McIntyre (bass), Art Pratten
(Pratt-A-Various), Archie Leitch (slide clarinet), Murray Favro (guitar and drums), John Clement (guitar), Bill Exley (vocals and theremin), John Boyle
(kazoo), Greg Curnoe (kazoo and drums). Photo: Ian
MacEachern

Art Pratten: Greg's studio was the real centre. It was open and admission was a passion for something...anything... art, literature, theater, movies, car racing, boxing, girls, beer and parties. Not necessarily in that order.

John Boyle: London was extremely exciting in the mid 1960’s for young
visual artists in particular. Greg
Curnoe had moved back to London after art school and found a large loft
studio. He and a group of friends opened
a small cooperative gallery called Region Gallery showing uncompromising local
work. He also started Region Magazine
where provocative local thinkers published their thoughts and poetry. 20/20 Gallery followed, and 20 Cents
Magazine. Jack Chambers moved back to
town from Spain and began painting full time in his studio. Local musicians were playing in various pubs,
and the York Hotel agreed to let the Spasm Band play on Monday nights. Artists, writers, academics, and musicians
met and socialized in Greg’s studio and in other artists lofts, exchanging
ideas and dreaming up projects.

Allied Records was a pretty big record company and it's
quite unusual they got you signed and manage to release your LP titled "No
Record". Did Greg Curnoe had any ties with them?

Murray Favro: I remember Allied Records was some offshoot of a big label,
it was based in Canada Boswell actually owned the tapes himself. He was out to record the next thing to happen in music and
was recording all the experimental stuff he could in case it may be one of them
that sets a new direction in the music business. Allied was doing an early
scouting for new directions.

He would not have been in the least interested in us if he
noticed influences by other bands in what we did. The Allied Corporation is the real name to search out on the
web otherwise you will end up only finding Allied Recordings in western USA
that is not the right Allied. Greg had no ties with Allied until later when they began
negotiating with us and I got the job of designing and doing artwork for the
cover of the record jacket. Someone else did liner notes, (I think it was Hugh)
and do not know who designed the back of the jacket; it may have been assembled
by the printers in Toronto with material we sent them.

Art Pratten: Not that I know of. A guy showed up on a Monday
night and asked if we were interested in making a record and we said "what
will it cost us?" he said "nothing" we said "sure why
not".

John Boyle: He knew some other artists who were recording with Allied,
and probably that is how Allied heard about the NSB. Allied was looking for new experimental bands
and individuals to record. I think they
thought they would discover people who might become big in the unpredictable
psychedelic music world of the 60’s. They asked us to record.

I would like if you could tell us what are some of the
strongest memories from recording this album. Where was it recorded and what
instruments were used? You had your own 'noise-machine'.

Murray Favro: It was done as if a live performance one take no rehearsing,
which we cannot do anyway.We gave
titles later for some of the tracks. I remember my Toronto art dealer being there with his
secretary, (he had taken an interest in exhibiting and selling unusual guitars
I had made a few years earlier and always was asking about the band and what we
were doing. He had not heard us though until that recording day. He could not
contain himself from jubilant laughter; he recognized pure creative activity
was what was going on. He liked it so much that he right then ordered two
cartons of the albums before they were made. I asked him later why did he buy
so many and Carmen replied ‘they will be worth a lot some day’. Some of them
eventually sold for hundreds of dollars each. I played a homemade version of a guitar with no frets on it;
also the neck could be bent to change a note while playing. Look up my name on
goggle and on images the guitars are there. You mention a ‘noise machine’, I never heard of any ‘noise
machine’ unless it was that thing Art Pratten tried out with doorstoppers on
it.

Art Pratten: The recording session is very much a blur for me
except for Archie who was hyper and shouted out some lyrics of his own. That is
where "Dog Face Man" comes from.

John Boyle: We recorded the record in a studio in broadcaster Bill
Bessey’s basement in Toronto. There were
several kazoos, drums and the bass. The
guitars had replaced a couple of kazoos. Archie Leitch had made a slide clarinet and Bill Exley played a theremin
that a friend had built for him. I
remember a wife or 2 tickling Bill’s
feet so he could make laughing noises.

What meaning has the material on the album? "Destroy the Nations" has some very provocative lyrics…

Murray Favro: I think "Destroy The Nations" had provocative lyrics as you
suggested it does. But when I actually listen to it implies that countries
mentioned have lost any idealism or Nationalism has no meaning or value any
longer. It is about doing away with the failed concepts of nationalism. But
then again another of our songs may imply the opposite on later songs like "No Canada" where a line mimics the Troggs in saying "Canada I think I love you,. But I want to know
for sure". Those provocative
lyrics are fun to say and fun to hear. Too much syrup is not good for anyone.

Art Pratten: They were suppose to be provocative and
humorous.

John Boyle: All of the band members contribute lines, words, ideas. We would sit around in an artist’s studio or
in a restaurant and shout out our contributions with Greg writing them
down. We were usually trying to be funny
and outrageous, but not serious. Some of
us were anti American, others were not.
Some were almost entirely non political. Our sense of irony made things seem more revolutionary than they actually
were. Over the years some of us have
learned that ironic comments are entirely lost on many members of the public.

How about the cover artwork? Who made that?

John Boyle: The photo is of Hugh McIntyre, our bassist for 39 years
until his death.Some friends had bought
him a north African bernuse, a long gown, which he wore occasionally.The band members agreed on the title.I was not involved in the design.Was it you, Murray?..., or Art?

Art Pratten: That was all Murray.

What happened after the record came out? It actually had
some promotion & distribution since it was released on bigger record label,
right?

Murray Favro:

Your question about a bigger record label is perhaps a
different Allied than the one Boswell was head of. (www.discogs.com/artist/519321-Jack-Boswell) confusing it was Allied. My
impression was that they spread the albums thinly around the world to see what
might happen somewhere. It was on it’s own in record stores where they did sell
what they made then Allied sat back to see what might happen. Something did but
it was a spread out audience and what eventually happened ten years later was
someone offered to make a new album and the same has happened other times
through the years and by now we have made a lot of albums, perhaps because of
that first one with Allied.

Art Pratten: We were jubilant. The Band got about 50, we
each took a couple copies bragged to our friends about it and promptly
abandoned the rest at the Greg's studio.

John Boyle: Nothing much happened. It did receive some air
play, and we got a few invitations to play on university campuses. Gradually
copies found their way around the world and began to build our international
underground reputation. It took a long time before we got any feedback. One
copy made its way into the hands of Toshiji Mikawa and Jojo Hiroshige of
Hijokaidan in Japan in the late 1980s. In 1991 we received an invitation sent
to the mailing address on the record in London to record on Alchemy Records,
Jojo’s label in Osaka.

What can you say about concerts? With who did you share
stages?

Murray Favro: The NSB has played numerous concerts and music festival
things and tours, so many places that I sometimes mix them up when I try
remembering what happened where.

Audiences today are better listeners than the ones in the
1960’s and more musicians can play along with us now also it seems that in the
past they always wanted to bring some concept to try out with us. These ideas
never worked, now many musicians can just play with no plan its all listening
and reaction what they do will be a surprise to them. Some people I remember were Maynard and the Mocking Birds,
Mike Snow, Lighthouse, Sonic Youth, Joe McFee, Joe Joe and Junko, to name a
few.

John Boyle: For 20 years we mostly emptied theaters and bars. In the 1980’s we played in Quebec for the
first time and received an enthusiastic response for nearly the first time
ever. We were shocked. In the 1990s we began to tour
internationally for the first time since 1969. Also, the No Music festival was started by some young enthusiasts and
fans in London. There were 5 festivals
in all. We played with many of the
world’s leading improvisers, including Fred Van Hove, Thurston Moore, Lee
Renaldo, Hijokaidan, the Incapacitants, Ken Vandermark, Alexander Hacke, Joe
Mcphee, REM, and countless others. We
were always impressed by the down-to-earth civility and friendliness of the
musicians, but we were never overawed by them. Thankfully, we always felt like equals. Of course, all humans are equals.

You even went to Europe. What's the story behind that?

Murray Favro: We have gone to Europe many times on tours and played in
festivals there. When you ask what the story is about going to Europe you
must be referring to the first time we were sent as Canada’s part in an art
cultural thing in Paris’s at it’s main contemporary museum where other
countries sent stuff to hang on walls we played outdoors and the street
audience seemed to enjoy it. Then we went to some art school in London England and played
next and came back to Canada.

Art Pratten: We represented Canada at the Paris Biennial. It
was great none of us had been to Europe before, the wives all went and we had a
great time and Oh yes we played a couple of times.

Your music is very unique. Did you know or listen to other
weird stuff like "Trout Mask Replica" by Captain Beefheart? Or perhaps bands like Cromagnon, Red
Krayola or even maybe work like "Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and
Electronic Music" by John Cage and David Tudor?

Murray Favro: Never heard or heard of any of those people like Beefart, or
Krayolla or the others even never read about or heard John Cage’s stuff, only
heard the name in conversations.

Art Pratten: The problem is that although we listened to
various groups we can only do what we do make a noise on whatever we have at
hand in response to whatever noise the others are making.

What are some of the craziest memories you have, that
happened on the road or in general?

Bill Exley: There are so many funny stories.The story Murray tells about the van in
Quebec having to drive back a hundred miles to pick up Bill Exley, whom they
had left behind, is not true.It is a crazy
story, but it is an invented one.

Murray Favro: I am now trying to think about the craziest things happening
while traveling with the band. We toured and made an album with Sunplexis they flew over
from France and we started in Quebec from there we got in a van and came into
Ontario. I forgot most of the trip to Toronto but when the album came
out Sunplexis wrote the liner notes in them were things I had forgotten but
seemed crazy to read. They complained that Canadian food causes diarrhea
especially that peutine stuff, then went on to say we had forgotten Bill Exley
at one of the rest stops and did not notice for hundreds of miles before we
went back to get him. We actually noticed almost right away because it was so
quiet in the van, the problem was these super highways in Canada are one way
with a turn around point which is about a hundred miles then when you are going
back on the far lane (again one way) you can only wave to him and then proceed
to the next nearest turnaround to get back in the right lane. So OK it was a
couple hundred miles but that’s nothing in Canada, it’s a big place. I suppose
in Europe it would be like driving from France to Russia perhaps but here it is
necessary to get to those turnarounds and it was crazy for Sunplexis. That is
my crazy trip story wait listen to this when they got to Toronto they went
“whew that was a long way but at least we got to see all of Canada.

Art Pratten: I view the Band as one single long event.
Individual events just blend in.

Do psychoactive drugs play any role in your songwriting,
recording or performance as a band?

Murray Favro:

We never took drugs but at a performance with Maynard and
the Mocking Birds after hearing us one of them said to Hugh "we will trade you
what we take for what you guys are taking". Hughs answer was perfect "You get
high to play"……"we play to get high". And that is our attitude still.

Art Pratten: At 10 cents a glass beer was and still is the
drug of choice.

It took almost ten years to record second album, which came
out in 1978. What's the story behind this one?

Art Pratten: We played at the "Music Gallery".
They said that they recorded all concerts and did we mind if they put out a
record, we said "what will it cost us" they said
"nothing"we said "sure
why not".

Later on you recorded and released a lot of albums and you
had a few visits to Europe and Japan. You actually have a lot of fans in Japan.
How do you feel about that?

Murray Favro: It is good to have listeners appreciate our
creative works. I think I understand why they like us, it has to do with living
in their society that is so structured and with proper ways to act that they
let loose when they see unstructured creativity. As an example one of the best
Japanese noise performers works at a high up job at a bank but he is an
entirely different person making noise music on weekends banging his head with
drumheads and making noises like a cave dweller. They need chaotic
distractions.

Art Pratten: It is nice to be liked. and it was nice to go
to Japan meet the players and hear what they were doing.

The only person to quit the band was Archie Leach and he did
it around late 1969 so he actually was only in the band for about 5 years. He
was about to turn 30 or had already. Archie had told us many times he had a goal to be a
millionaire by the time he was 30 and we were had not helped with this ambition
of his so he wanted his fair share of any money we had put into buying amps.
Hugh and I had the task of solving this by not stopping him from quitting the
band or making us sell the amps to give him his fair share. A few beers and patience listening he wanted cash not any band
equipment and he settled for a share of the equipment when the band breaks up
and sells it. Hugh wrote out an agreement for us to sign on a cigarette carton.
I’m not sure how legal it all was or if Hugh made two copies. Anyway Archie
seems to be OK with the fact we still have not broken up the band.

Greg died while riding his bicycle that was hit by a truck
about 1995. Hugh died of cancer in about 2008. Aya is now our drummer; we met her in Japan where she organized
our tours there. She was truly a fan and sort of followed us back to Canada
where she went to university to learn English well enough to be able to dub
movies. I was never sure if it was to dub Japanese movies with English or to
dub English movies with Japanese. Either way she ended up not dubbing films and marrying John
Boyle, now she travels as our drummer to all concerts. She is like a member but
wants to stay out of any internal band problems so we have to decide things.

Art Pratten: Archie Leitch left of his own accord, Greg was
killed, we picked up Aya Ohnishi in Japan and then Hugh died. I can not imagine adding anyone else. We will probably continue playing til a
few more die and the others are not let out.

Aya Onishi: When I was fourteen years old in 1984, my school mates and I started the band called
Sekiri in which I was the drummer, and that led me to meet Jojo Hiroshige of
Hijokaidan, who is the founder of Alchemy Record in Japan. In 1996, I was working at Alchemy Record,
and we organized the Spasm Band`s first Japanese tour. During the tour, I sat in with the band and
played the drums with them for the first time in my home town, Kyoto,
Japan. Later In 1998, I was interested
in making sub-titles for movies so I decided to go back to school to study
English again, and I told Jojo about my plan. He gave me the crazy advice that
I should go to a school in London,
Ontario, Canada so that I could go to their every Monday night show! I thought it was a brilliant idea so I
followed the advice, and ended up being
lodged at the Prattens, going to school, and playing with the band every Monday
night. I got a chance to make sub-titles
when the great Canadian film maker, the late Zev Asher made a documentary film
about the Spasm Band called "What About Me: The Rise of the Nihilist Spasm Band" in 2000, and the film was shown in Tokyo, and Osaka in 2004. Looking back, I did lots of shows, tours, and
projects with the band. To me, the sound of the band is unique, curious, and
stubborn but never menacing. When we play with great attention to each other`s
sounds, it becomes incredible. It sounds
alive. When we play like that, that is definitely my favourite moment of the
band.

Who is currently in the Nihilist Spasm Band and what
currently occupies your life?

Current band members;

Murray Favro (lead guitar)

John Clement (lead bass)

Art Pratten (lead prat-a-various and second fiddle)

Bill Exley (lead vocalist)

John Boyle (Kazoo, drums and lead thumb harp)

Aya Onishi (lead kazoo and lead drummer)

Bill Exley: One of the bad things about getting older is that people
fall into attitudes of hostility, narrowness, and lack of intellectual
curiosity.I am reading new books,
meeting new people, and finding inspiration from people who are young or who
have youthful enthusiasms.

Art Pratten: As answered in "What influences you these
days?"... Just about everything

Any advice for people who are starting a band?

Murray Favro: Tour as little as needed in a year or your band will break
up. We have seen it many times a band with a gig almost every
day for months. If you do this just remember familiarity breed’s contempt
(sais Uncle Hugh). You will hate one another in no time if you overdo it, just
do what you can enjoy otherwise your band may last a maximum of 4 or 5 years.

Art Pratten: Be bold'
there will always be people who will be surprised and amused that you
have the audacity to put something out there but if you believe in what you are doing they will come to
either appreciate what you are doing or at least respect you for doing it. But remember... this is for you, your vision comes first.

... a place where musicians can express themselves ...

Psychedelic Folk issue available

Dedicated to British psychedelic folk. New issue of printed version projected from the well-known, leading psych on-line site It’s Psychedelic Baby. After the previous issue covering exclusively the US psychedelic folk scene (IPB 002, 2016), this new issue covers the 1960s and 1970s British folk scene, with exclusive interviews of members from acts such as Fresh Maggots, Comus, Mellow Candle, Dr Strangely Strange, Spirogyra, C.O.B., Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Pererin, Courtyard Music Group, Magic Carpet, Sunforest, Oberon, etc. Also includes a few pages of record reviews. Cover by Justin Jackley.